Towards automation of palynology 2: the use of texture measures and neural network analysis for automated identification of optical images of pollen grains

The automation of palynology (the identification and counting of pollen grains and spores) will be a small step for image recognition, but a giant stride for palynology. Here we show the first successful automated identification, with 100% accuracy, of a realistic number of taxa. The technique used involves a neural network classifier applied to surface texture data from light microscope images. A further significance of the technique is that it could be adapted for the identification of a wide range of biological objects, both microscopic and macroscopic. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vegetation changes and their climatic implication for the late Pleistocene at Lake Poukawa, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

A detailed vegetation history extending back to the Last Interglacial (Marine Isotope Substage 5e) is presented for Lake Poukawa, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. This history is based on palynological analyses of a 198-m core record, age secured by uranium/thorium (U/Th) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates as well as tephrochronology. Vegetation of the penultimate glacial (Isotope Stage 6) probably consisted of a very sparse shrubby herbland of stunted podocarps (Phyllocladus sp.), daisies, grasses and sedges. Similar floras existed in each of the succeeding cool periods. Four interglacial/interstadial floras are preserved. The peak of the Last Interglacial (Substage 5e) was dominated by extensive lowland forest of tall forest podocarps (Podocarpus/Prumnopitys), most probably matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia) with red beech (Nothofagus fusca), secondary forest trees (Coprosma spp., Myrsine spp.) and tree ferns (Cyathea spp.). In the Poukawa basin itself, a swamp forest of the podocarp (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides) with the true palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) expanded. Substage 5e was significantly warmer and/or moister than the present day. Substage 5c/5a was marked by montane forest of red and silver beeches (N. fusca and N. menziesii), Phyllocladus spp. and secondary trees. A reduced representation of Podocarpus/Prumnopitys possibly consists of montane podocarp (Podocarpus hallii). We infer the temperature of Substage 5c/5a to have been 3.5–5 °C lower than the present day. Although Stage 3 flora are superficially similar to those of Substage 5c/5a, the beeches are relatively less dominant. The regional flora during Stage 1 is very similar to those of Substage 5e, but the density is lower with no swamp forest during the present interglaciation. This may represent a change in evapotranspiration balance around Poukawa, but may also be controlled by hydrological conditions within the basin.     

A palaeoecological test of the land-use hypothesis for recent lake acidification in South-West Norway using hill-top lakes

Lakes perched on hill-tops have very small catchments. Their water chemistry is largely influenced by the chemical composition of precipitation and by the underlying bedrock geology. They are ideal sites for testing the hypothesis that land-use and associated soil changes are a major cause of recent lake acidification. On this hypothesis, hill-top lakes in SW Norway are predicted not to show any recent lake acidification because, by their very nature, the chemistry of such lakes is little influenced by land-use or soil changes.Palaeolimnological analyses of diatoms and chrysophytes show that prior to ca. 1914 the two hill-top lakes investigated were naturally acid with reconstructed lake-pH values of at least 4.8–5.1. Since ca. 1914 lake pH values declined to ca. 4.5–4.7. These results contradict the land-use hypothesis. All the available palaeolimnological evidence (diatoms, chrysophytes, pollen, sediment geochemistry, carbonaceous particles) is consistent with the acid-deposition hypothesis.In the absence of any evidence to support the land-use hypothesis as a primary cause of recent lake acidification and in the light of several independent refutations, it is perhaps time to put the land-use hypothesis for recent lake acidification to rest.     

Paleoecological investigation of recent lake acidification in the northern Great Lakes states

Paleoecological analyses of sediments from nine northern Great Lakes states (NGLS) lakes reveal small pH changes in seven of these lakes since 1860, four of these being declines. The largest diatom-inferred (DI) pH declines of 0.5 pH units were found in Brown L. and Denton L., Wisconsin. Two other lakes with suspected total alkalinity declines (based on an acidification model and on historical water chemistry, respectively), McNearney L., Michigan, and Camp 12 L., Wisconsin, have not acidified recently according to diatom-inference techniques. Many of the observed trends of increasing pH are coincident with logging; floristic composition of diatom assemblages also changed coincident with fisheries manipulations in some lakes, but these floristic trends did not affect DI pH. Sediment core profiles of Pb, S, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons provide a record of atmospheric deposition of fossil fuel combustion products beginning around the turn of the century; onset is later and accumulation rates are smaller than for other northeastern study regions of the Paleoecological Investigation of Recent Lake Acidification (PIRLA) Project. The response of diatom species to lakewater pH in the NGLS region is very strong and similar to response in other regions. Overall, there is little paleoecological evidence that acidic deposition has caused significant acidification of lakes in the NGLS region.This is the twelfth of a series of papers to be published by this journal which is a contribution of the Paleoecological Investigation of Recent Lake Acidification (PIRLA) project. Drs. D.F. Charles and D.R. Whitehead are guest editors for this series.     

POLLEN AND SPORE STRATIGRAPHY OF A MOLLIC HAPLUDALF (DEGRADED CHERNOZEM) IN NORTHEASTERN KANSAS

Palynological analyses were completed for the A and B horizons of a forested Mollic Hapludalf to determine type, amount, and distribution of pollen and spores within the soil solum. Hypotheses regarding the origin of pollen and the mechanisms of its movement within soil bodies are also advanced. Pollen downwash within the mineral soil seems to be very slow and confined to the uppermost porous and most homogenized part of the solum. The predominance of non-arboreal pollen at depth was believed to be a result of deposition with the loess parent material. High arboreal pollen frequencies in the upper horizons coupled with increases in non-arboreal types at depth indicate gradual ongoing mixing from the present vegetation into the soil.     

Wisconsinan Late-glacial environmental change in southern New England: A regional synthesis

A synthesis of vegetational and climatic history during the Wisconsinan Late-glacial (13-9 ka BP) is presented for the southern New England region. The interpretations are based on a number of pollen-stratigraphical investigations supported by plant macrofossil data. Chronology is based partly on AMS dates of plant macrofossils. Reference is made briefly to the controversial nature of the evidence for deglaciation in the region. A curve representing mean July temperature changes in the region during the period 13-9 ka BP is provided.     

Paleolimnological investigations of anthropogenic environmental change in Lake Tanganyika: V. Palynological evidence for deforestation and increased erosion

Pollen spectra from seven short cores taken from deltaic sites in the central and northern parts of Lake Tanganyika provide information about vegetation changes around the lake during the last 5000 years. Pollen analysis was undertaken to understand the history and timing of catchment deforestation and its causal linkage to excess sedimentation and ecosystem change in Lake Tanganyika. The spectra are dominated by grass pollen at all levels in every core. Grass pollen percentage values range between 40 and 80%. Low values of arboreal pollen taxa (1–20%) were documented from most cores except core LT-98-2M. Core LT-98-2M represents the longest duration vegetation record of this study (close to 5000 years BP), and records the onset of increasingly arid conditions in the Late Holocene, especially after 500 A.D., with the probable replacement of forest by open grassland in the Mahale Mountains region. The pollen/spore content for other cores showed a consistent trend of a decrease in grass pollen and an increase in pteridophyte and forest indicator pollen taxa during the last few centuries, contemporaneous with other indications of increased watershed disturbance from forest clearing (especially isotopes and lake faunal change). The timing or strength of this trend is not tied to specific levels of watershed disturbance. However, increasing fern spore abundance does occur progressively later towards the south, where modern human population densities are lower. Although increasing fern spore abundance is consistent with a land-clearing hypothesis, the rising arboreal pollen percentages are seemingly counterintuitive. One possible explanation is that increasing arboreal pollen proportions reflects the recycling of abundant pollen of this type from rapidly eroding soils. Another likely explanation for this finding is that land clearing involved the replacement of miombo woodland, with its mixture of trees producing little pollen and understory grasses producing large amounts of pollen, by the present day cassava, banana, and legume agricultural systems, all of which are poor pollen producers. This shift in catchment vegetation would increase the relative contribution of Afromontane pollen transported long distances from the surrounding highland regions. This hypothesis is consistent with both the lack of correlation of palynological history with specific watershed deforestation attributes, as well as the broader historical record of human habitation in the Lake Tanganyika region. This study also highlights the need for both modern pollen transect data from the region and comparative cores from low elevation swamps or ponds (wetlands) in the region with smaller catchment areas.     

Pliocene—pleistocene boundary in the Kleszczów Graben at Belchatów,central Poland

The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, defined using pollen analysis, has been recorded in sections at the Belchatów outcrop, Kleszczów Graben, central Poland. The boundary is located at the top of the green clay subunit of the Tertiary Clayey-sandy unit. A pollen flora of Reuverian C type, dominated by pine, 10–20% of ‘Reuverian elements’ and scarce thermophilous Tertiary trees, was found directly below this subunit. Cold stage floras of Praetiglian type were, in turn, recorded in the ?ekińsko Formation, lying directly on the green clays. The Pliocene—Pleistocene transition at Belchatów demonstrates the characteristic features of this boundary in western Europe, that is, the disappearance of Tertiary thermophilous tree pollen taxa, followed by a cooling to open-forest or forest-steppe conditions. Both pollen analysis and geological data suggest continuous sedimentation at least from the Upper Pliocene to the Prae-Tiglian, with no change of sediment sources and no marked hiatuses. The fluvial deposits of the Praetiglian ?ekińsko Formation, although Pleistocene in age, mark a final period in the Tertiary evolution of the Kleszczów Graben. Later, there is a hiatus to the deposition of the first glacigenic sediments in the region possibly of Elsterian age.     

Palynological record during the Pleistocene (between 1.05 Ma and 0.36 Ma) from ODP1144, northern South China Sea

This paper presents the pollen record from the lower section of ODP1144 (depth 501.3-225.7 m, ca. 1.05-0.36 Ma). Two pollen zones (PA and PB) and eleven pollen subzones are recognized. Within zone PB, the 11 pollen subzones (PB21-11) are defined according to the pine, fern and herb variations, and are equivalent to the marine isotope stages 21-11 (MISs 21-11). The interglacial periods are typified by an increase in pine pollen and fern spores, and a decrease in herbaceous pollen, while the patterning during the glacial periods is just the opposite. During the interglacial periods, pollen assemblages were dominated by pine similar to those of the present day, suggesting that the paleoenvironment of the interglacial periods was similar to that of the present day, whereas the glacial periods are marked by an increase in herbaceous pollen, mainly Gramineae and Cyperaceae, indicating that grassland covered the exposed continental shelf when sea level declined. Increased Artemisia percentages and the highest